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Monthly Archives: January 2013

St. Hilary, having shown that the great and wonderful things mentioned in Psalm 130(131) are the things men see as glorious (and therefore would cause us to lift up our eyes from God to see them), he paints for us an example of someone who does not walk amid things great and wonderful which are above us:

For David, prophet and king as he was, once was humble and despised and unworthy to sit at his father’s table; but he found favour with God, he was anointed to be king, he was inspired to prophesy. His kingdom did not make him haughty, he was not moved by hatreds: he loved those that persecuted him, he paid honour to his dead enemies, he spared his incestuous and murderous children. In his capacity of sovereign he was despised, in that of father he was wounded, in that of prophet he was afflicted; yet he did not call for vengeance as a prophet might, nor exact punishment as a father, nor requite insults as a sovereign. And so he did not walk amid things great and wonderful which were above him.

David, though he was a prophet and a king, (like all of us) once fell into great sin. He desired Bathsheba, who was married. He committed adultery and then murder to cover up his sin. The son that resulted from this lust died as an infant. David, seeing the fruit of his error repented as is recorded in Psalm 50(51). It was this repentance and humility in which God found favor.

Learning his lesson, David continued to avoid the great and wonderful things of men. Though he was despised, persecuted and wounded he refused to use his power as king, prophet and father to take his vengeance. To take that road would have been to seek the glory of man — the trappings of power that come with being a king, prophet and father. Rather, he kept his eyes upon the Lord and the humility that was given him through his repentance.

All of us, throughout our lives, are given power over others. We are afforded the opportunity to exercise that power for our own gratification and glorification. That path, however, lifts our eyes to the great and wonderful things of man. David once took that path. It did not bring him greatness, but rather tragedy. David is considered to be great because of his humility, his ability to keep his eyes upon God and avoid the path that seeks the glory of man. This greatness is open to all of us through the repentance and humility of David.

Having demonstrated that our eyes should not be lifted up away from God to things of the world of men, St. Hilary begins to examine the second verse of Pslam 130(131):

Then follows: ‘Neither have I walked amid great things, nor amid wonderful things that are above me.’ It is most dangerous to walk amid mean things, and not to linger amid wonderful things. God’s utterances are great; He Himself is wonderful in the highest: how then can the psalmist pride himself as on a good work for not walking amid great and wonderful things? It is the addition of the words, ‘which are above me,’ that shews that the walking is not amid those things which men commonly regard as great and wonderful.

If God is above us all and is great and wonderful, why does the psalmist exhort himself (and us) not to walk among great things or amid wonderful things that are above us? In light of the first verse, which warns us not to lift up our eyes from God to earthly things, St. Hilary sees a similar pattern in this verse. The phrase, “which are above me” is to be understood in the same way that “Neither have mine eyes been lifted up.”

There is a poetic convention within Hebrew that sees an idea restated twice. This is not only a poetic device, but also a tool with which to help clarify what the two statements are saying. Thus, it is perfectly acceptable for St. Hilary to read the phrase “which is above me” in light of lifting up the eyes to ungodly things.

In other words, the great and wonderful things that are above (and therefore would draw us to lift up our eyes) are not heavenly things, but rather those things which men consider to be great and wonderful. It emphasizes the choice we have to make on a daily basis between the Kingdom of God and the world. Which do we seek, which do we look upon with fondness, which glory do we desire, which do we consider great and wonderful? We cannot walk in a way that seeks both. We must choose the glory of God and His Kingdom or the glory man.

Having established that Psalm 130(131) is about humility, St. Hilary analyzes the second half of the first verse:

‘Neither have Mine eyes been lifted up.’ The strict sense of the Greek here conveys a different meaning; οὐδὲ ἐμετεωρίσθησαν οἱ ὀφθαλμοί μου, that is, have not been lifted up from one object to look on another. Yet the eyes must be lifted up in obedience to the Prophet’s words: ‘Lift up your eyes and see who hath displayed all these things (Isaiah 40:26).’ And the Lord says in the gospel: ‘Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields, that they are white unto harvest (John 4:35).’ The eyes, then, are to be lifted up: not, however, to transfer their gaze elsewhere, but to remain fixed once for all upon that to which they have been raised.

For me, it is gratifying to see St. Hilary doing something that I love to do — go to the Greek to get a nuance that isn’t there in the translation I am working with. Whereas I work with English, St. Hilary is operating with Latin. It not only goes to show that the Septuagint translation of the OT was the “go to” version of the OT that the ancient church used, but that the Holy Spirit has and does work with and through translations.

This latter statement, however, does come with caveat. When reading a translation (especially with our favorite version), it is quite possible to fall into the trap of eisegesis — reading into a text, or allowing our own preconceptions and prejudices to cloud our understanding of the text. Such a path is antithetical to what St. Hilary is speaking to with the first verse of Psalm 130(131).

Our eyes always need to be lifted up to God, thus we need to see what the text has to say about God, not what we want it to say about Him. From an Orthodox perspective, the safest path to determining whether or not we are understanding a text from Scripture in a proper way is to go to the Orthodox Church and see what she says about the text in question. This is because we believe that the Holy Spirit leads the Orthodox Church where she needs to go. As St. James declares after the Council of Jerusalem in the book of Acts (15:28), “It seems good to the Holy Spirit and to us…”

There are several ways for us to see how the Orthodox Church understands Scripture:

The context in which the Orthodox Church reads a particular text. This could be in light of a saint’s life, or a feast of the Theotokos or a feast of the Lord. The Orthodox Church also juxtaposes an Epistle reading, a Gospel reading and (usually) Psalm verses on these feasts. All of these factors speak to each other about what a particular text means.

The hymnody of the Orthodox Church is replete with Scriptural quotations and references. The hymns are a poetic interpretation of these Scriptural passages.

The New Testament itself interprets the OT all the time. On the Sunday after Theophany, for example, we will read Matthew 4:12-17 where the Evangelist tells us that Christ dwelling in Capernaum fulfills Isaiah 9:1, 2.

The Fathers of the Church recognized as saints. They, of course, wrestle with Scripture all the time (as is evidenced by this series of blog posts). This, however, also must come with a caveat. The Fathers are human, and so have their own prejudices and weaknesses. Therefore, no Father can be read in isolation of other Fathers nor should we elevate one Father above all others. In this way, we can balance out their weaknesses with the strengths of others.

Armed with these tools, it is much easier to keep our eyes lifted to God when we read Scripture.

This Psalm, a short one, which demands an analytical rather than a homiletical treatment, teaches us the lesson of humility and meekness. Now, as we have in a great number of other places spoken about humility, there is no need to repeat the same things here. Of course we are bound to bear in mind in how great need our faith stands of humility when we hear the Prophet thus speaking of it as equivalent to the performance of the highest works: ‘O Lord, my heart is not exalted. For a troubled heart is the noblest sacrifice in the eyes of God.’ The heart, therefore, must not be lifted up by prosperity, but humbly kept within the bounds of meekness through the fear of God.

St. Hilary couldn’t be more clear: this Psalm is about humility. Note how important this characteristic is in the Christian life by the fact that St. Hilary does not feel the need to preach about what humility is — it has been spoken of so many times in other places that to speak of it here would be an unnecessary repetition (oh, what a luxury to be able to preach that!).

In these days of reality television, YouTube fame, and the idea that one can count their friends via social media like Facebook and Twitter, this is an interesting contrast and a reminder at how much we as Americans have not only forgotten this Christian virtue, but have actively turned our back on it.

Note how highly both St. Hilary and the Prophet value humility: it is the noblest sacrifice in the eyes of God. Notice also the framework within which we need to understand ourselves and why we must strive for humility: the fear of God.

Once again, we need to properly understand the word “fear.” We have seen the wonders of God and acknowledge that His power and love lay far beyond our grasp. Think for a moment of a beautiful sunset and the scenery that accompanies it (personally, this includes the foothills of the Rocky Mountains and strings of clouds that turn bright orange and purple). There is no human hand that can arrange that reality. This scene is made possible by the will of God alone. He is the one who created it. Period.

Fearing God means being in awe of that beauty, properly acknowledging God’s role in its existence and honoring Him for all that He has given to us. As it says in Proverbs 9:10, the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord. When we acknowledge His role in our life and all that surrounds us, it is easy to see the folly of reality television, YouTube fame, as well as Facebook and Twitter friendship. All of them grasp at human glory. When seen in comparison to the glory of God, they truly add up to nothing. When God is truly a focus in our life, humility is a necessary outcome.